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Title: The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia by Rene Grousset ISBN: 0-8135-1304-9 Publisher: Rutgers University Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 1988 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A great work on the history of the steppe. Read it!
Comment: A friend introduced this book to me. His opinion is you can't understand European history without understanding the history of the steppes. My opinion is that you can't understand the history of China without understanding the Steppes. This book covers both sides admiringly well despite its date (1939). From the time of dim prehistory to the last struggle of the once-great descendants of the Ghengis Khanate, Grousset described the greatest and mostly unknown saga of the peoples of the steppe. We find out the history of the Indo-European cultures in central Asia (Yes, this was decades before the discovery of the blonde mummies in China and Grousset could have predicted their discovery decades ago). We find out about the Kara-Kitai, the greatest enemy the Muslims of Asia ever faced (NOt the Crusaders). We were there when the Dzungars, last heir of Ghengis Khan was caught between the expanding Russian empire and the rising Manchu empire. Buy it, read it and world history will never be the same again.
Rating: 5
Summary: Well worth reading even after six decades
Comment: I first read this book twelve years ago and have been fascinated with the history of the Central Asian steppes ever since. Rene Grousset was one of those rare writers who could infect the reader with the same enthusiasm and interest that he himself possessed. Naomi Walford did a fantastic job translating from the original French text and retaining the spirit of the work. The 600+ pages cover in chronological order the history of steppe tribes from the Scythians to the Dzungar realm in the late 18th century. Throughout the work Grousset conveys to the reader a detailed picture of the various Turkic, Mongol, and Manchu tribes (and to a lesser extent Indo-Eurpoean tribes), and how political and military control of the steppe regions shifted between these tribes over the centuries. There is also a great deal of coverage on the more well-known known conquerors (Genghis and Kublai Khan, Tamerlane) and their empires. The book contains a great number of quotes from passages recorded by many civilizations throughout history which had come in contact with these Central Asian peoples, and these coupled with Grousset's writing style portray the events and personalities of that distant age in a more intimate light. The fact that Indo-Europeans had co-existed in close proximity to Turkic-Mongol tribes and Chinese peoples long before recorded history was a fascinating revelation to me. In addition to documenting the geographic parameters of the more significant empires and their direct contact with cultures from Poland to Iraq to India to Japan, Grousset also shows how events in Central Asia have indirectly affected distant regions by causing a chain of population displacements that resulted in military conquests far away from Central Asia. Although Grousset often resorted to speculations which have proved in time to be inaccurate, the detraction from the book's overall quality is minimal. One can read one of the many up-to-date books on this subject to clean up Grousset's inaccuracies, but I personally have yet to find one that has been of comparable pleasure to read.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Men as Product of Nature
Comment: This book sets out to expalin that the Steppe nomads are fiercely independent people, who are *only bounded* by the Landscape Terrain, and Mother Nature(wheather condition), where their source of food and livelyhoods are derived from. Their entire philosophy related to righteous way to-live and to-die are the byproduct of such living conditions. Their skills of warfare and horsemanships were far superior and no match for the people of sedentary civilization, at the time. But this book does not end there, it points out the similarities and also the subtle differences amongst the Steppe nomadic tribes of different races and ethnicities, who roamed in the areas ranging from the Far East Asia to Southern Russia. The Steppe nomads became uniquely Eurasians from the inter-mixing of various tribes, and became tolerant of various Races( Aryans, Turanians, etc), and Creed( Budhism, Nestorianism, etc ). Jenghiz Khan was able to unite and build greater royal armies because of this political philosophy, that were naturally derived and shaped by the Steppe nomadic culture. It's 14th century verison of democracy perhaps more superior than any modern, in my opinion.
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Title: Warriors of the Steppe: A Military History of Central Asia, 500 B.C. to A.D. 1700 by Erik Hildinger ISBN: 0306810654 Publisher: Da Capo Press Pub. Date: 06 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: A History of Inner Asia by Svat Soucek ISBN: 0521657040 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 17 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars= Historia Mongalorum Quo s Nos Tartaros Appellamus: Friar Giovanni Di Plano Carpini's Account of His Embassy to the Court of the Mongol Khan by Da Pian Del Carpine Giovanni, Erik Hildinger ISBN: 0828320179 Publisher: Branden Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The History of the Mongol Conquests by J. J. Saunders ISBN: 0812217667 Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy by Paul Ratchnevsky, Thomas Nivison Haining ISBN: 0631189491 Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: 01 November, 1993 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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